Ever heard somebody say “Cash vs loan? Money is money, the seller doesn’t care, as long as we show up to close.”
Sorry, but that was so 2000-2007.
With Banks, REOS and Short Sales, money is playing second or third fiddle to TERMS, TERMS, TERMS. Banks are taking 2-4% (more…)
NEWSFLASH! MANY Short Sales are NOW CLOSING! But still BEWARE!
They are the best deal in town, by far. More so than bank deals. But if you don’t read this carefully you will be FORKED!
In case you are new to the world of home shopping, 
there is something called a Short Sale. You need to read the details (more…)
After 82 blog posts, I have never re-posted or written a post about another blogger’s post.
However, today (actually earlier this month, but I never completed the post) I saw a post that I know took 4 hours to write, and is very informative. Also it gives me a chance to introduce Realtor Jeff Royce. He has one of the best blogs around for Fairfax Homes (that was for Google Juice), and after 11 years in the business he just came over to FranklyRealty.com from Re/Max. Welcome Jeff. (more…)
I got the best feedback of the year yesterday. Somebody said they wanted to use me as their agent, but they thought I was too busy for them. They signed up another agent and they were disappointed.
Then they recommended my blog, Youtube and FranklyMLS.com to 3 friends. They also liked what they read and saw. But each one also thought I was too busy.
So to dispel this, I made a video (I didn’t have time to write it out*). (click here if you don’t see video)
Update 11/2012: Redfin does it again! Congrats! First they increase fees by 50% (post below in 2009), then 3 years later in 2012 they cut their rebate yet again, this time almost in half for a typical $475k homes. A 0.88% rebate, down from the 2008 2% rebate. And there is no more firm-wide published % for the r ebate, so the % rebate continues to drop quietly (based on a $600k home in April 2012, vs Nov 2012). Nobody will be the wiser. Unless you follow my blog.
So I’m a big fan of Redfin. I love their MLS search engine (better mapping vs. my faster FranklyMLS.com) and don’t worry, they love a good debate, as long as they get link love (helps with Google).
This is a 2 part story. 1) Redfin Increases rates and 2) Fuzzy Math on Redfin’s “Advantage” calculation.
Part 1:
Many people might not know, Redfin two months ago increased their buyer agent commissions by 50% (more…)
After 5,000,000 page views served and 40,000 Wiki added photos, FranklyMLS.com (Frankly MLS) has done it again.
A new round of 1sts for MLS Search engine features! And you might have been wondering what I was up to.
PREVIOUS LIST OF FIRSTS:
I just got a bank owned / REO property under contract. Was previously $800k, and it was now listed for $400k.
We had to bid on 6 properties before finally “winning” one (ask how we “won” without having the highest offer too!). Wow was that a pain. And people say it is a “buyers market” with tons of inventory? If a home is priced right, it will sell FAST. The key is to get daily MLS email alerts! (or ask for hourly)
So, I haven’t figured out to what degree the hassle was with the listing agent or with the bank (more…)
(Warning long a** post, but my best of year.)
FranklyCRA: A Comparative REALTOR Analysis. Unleashed.
Imagine legally eavesdropping onto the conversation of the listing agent, with buyer in tow.
You know, the one that goes like this, “Well, in my experience I think you should…”
Well what if I could tell you there was a way to know what that experience exactly was? Trends that the other agent repeats. Yep, and I have been doing it for 4 years.
A REALTOR friend that I taught this technique to, and works for one of the big boys said, “No Stop, (more…)
FranklyMLS.com now offers in the spreadsheet view a % Difference between the Tax Assessment and the List Price. But I’m here to tell you that I see too many buyers giving TOO MUCH weight to the tax records and tax assessments. (So why offer it? Well cuz you want it anyway).
1) The MLS freezes tax data (more…)
In a long list of “1sts”, FranklyMLS.com is now the 1st Virginia/DC/MD MLS search engine that scrubs for Short Sales! (maybe the 1st in the nation). Also see my quote today in the
Wash Post, and my other articles defining Short Sales.
On the FranklyMLS.com spreadsheet results page, try a search for Alexandria, if you see an asterisk next to the price, that means it is “probably a short (more…)
My grandmother thinks I’m broke!
The other day she calls me and says in a thick accent,
“Are you still able to feed yourself? Why are you still in Real Estate.”
I asked why, and she proceeds, “I keep reading in the paper (more…)
(Update 6-16-08: This post was featured in the Washington Post)
I wrote about my distaste for Short Sales (aka Fake Listings), and how only 5% close in Northern Virginia (as of 2-08, but that might be changing). I guess now my distaste has shifted away from Short Sales, and more toward clueless (more…)
I officially have 100% proof that we have officially hit rock bottom.
No other indicators from NAR or the government have been as accurate as the proof that I have. I found a 100% correlation!
When My MOM SELLS, (more…)
I am officially launching FranklyMLS.com, the The First Wiki MLS!
Where BUYER AGENTS, in Virginia and DC, from multiple brokerages come together to ADD information and photo albums to listings they visit. MORE DATA & 1,000+ MORE PHOTOS!
THE “OLD 1.0 WAY”: (see all 31 MLS search engines here)
1) One-Way Information. “Here are homes for sale, as marketed by the listing agent. Take it, trust it, or leave it.” 
2) Photoless MLS Listings!
Sure they sell for $15,000 less but they are a pain for everyone. Oftentimes foreclosures or a listing by an underpaid or sucky agent have no (more…)
So you are buying a Virginia bank owned property, and REO or a Short Sale? You need to understand the various bank addendums that accompany them, or you might miss a $3,000 hidden fee.
But first, a quick background. Agents that are members of NVAR, and are REALTORS, use a 15 page contract that was painstakingly (more…)
So you’ve just looked at 10 homes and your brain is fried.
Everything starting to look alike? Oh No!
The solution: Buyer Agent Photo Albums.
Your buyer agent should be taking 30-50 photos per house (more…)
I was reading The Washington Post on Sat November 24 and I came across their “Real Estate Trends” report for Fairfax County. They compared the first 6 months of 2006 to the first 6 months of 2007, excluded condos, and they used data gathered through the courthouse (ie. not the MLS).
Out of the 47 zip codes, they said the #1 fastest growing zip code was 20170, Herndon at +14.4%. (more…)
Punchline: Buy homes with No Additional photos= Save $15,000 on a $400,000 house.
Buyers LOVE seeing tons of photos for each listing online. I think Realtor.com said that listings with multiple photos get seen 6 times more than listings with 1 photo. The tendency for buyers is to see a photoless house and think it is garbage and skip to the next listing (more…)
Buy like a Realtor!
This post is a link to a 6 minute video showing the process involved in buying a Bank Owned Property in Arlington Virginia, by a Realtor. Megan Buckley, a Realtor with FranklyRealty.com, recently bought her REO home in South Arlington. It was bank owned.
Foreclosures aren’t as frequent as people think in Arlington, and I still suggest looking at everything, but it is possible to get one for a deeply reduced price versus the previous owner’s purchase price.
